GREETINGS FROM INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA AND THEN RUSHVILLE, INDIANA

I WOKE UP IN MARION, ILLINOIS THIS MORNING.  THIS IS WHAT TRANSPIRED TODAY.

 

 

It may take me a few days to get photos up for these races.  Soon you can click on www.ranlayracing.com to see photos of this week’s trip.

 

 

 

PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS

 

The Strategy

 

Getting trackchasing doubles will certainly increase a trackchaser’s totals quickly.  Tonight was my 22^nd double of the year in just 56 days of trackchasing.  It was also my 11^th day/night double.  I like day/night doubles.  You usually get to see as much of each show as you want.

 

I do see a time when my day/night doubles will decline.  Most of the “Day” part of the day/night doubles are road courses.  I rank in the top three of all worldwide trackchasers in road courses seen and I’m not even a road course fan.  I am running out of traditional road course options.

 

Frequency trackchasing strategy was definitely maximized here.  The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has countable road racing just one weekend each year.  The Rush County Fairgrounds races only four-five times per year.  Getting tracks that race this infrequently on the same day was a trackchasing blessing.

 

The Trip

 

I began the day at a Best Inn in Marion, Illinois.  The hotel was simple, clean, had a good wireless internet connection and cost just $35.  That was the bargain of the trip.

 

Before I could start my trip, I had to open all four doors of the rental car for about 15 minutes.  During this time at least 20 large mosquitoes flew out of the interior from the night before.  I am NOT exaggerating one iota.  Can you imagine I drove the car for two hours last night with just me and those 20 skeeters in the car?

 

The People

 

I was anxious to visit the Rush County Fairgrounds.  This track is located in Rushville, Indiana, which is home to NASCAR’s reigning champion, Tony Stewart.  In fact, Mr. Stewart has returned to Rushville to live in his boyhood home as his permanent residence.

 

Rushville is a very average looking small town of the Midwest.  If you didn’t look too closely you might think this was a town in the Carolinas.  The houses are older and nothing special.  It’s interesting that Mr. Stewart with all the millions he has earned from his NASCAR gig would choose to return here.  I guess you can take the boy out of the small town, but you can’t take the small town out of the boy.  Good for Tony.

 

Tonight, I met up with the UMRA announcer at the track.  I was invited up to the tower for a trackchaser interview during a break before the first race.  Chad, the announcer, was most interested in the trackchasing hobby.  One of the questions, he asked me was, “In all of the racing you’ve seen who is your favorite driver?”

 

Of course, my all-time favorite driver is Darrell Dake of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Since Microsoft Word is questioning the spelling of “Dake” I guess that program doesn’t recognize him either.  I saw Darrell Dake race at Davenport, Sterling and Freeport amongst other places.  He was a dominant stock car driver in the Midwest for years through the 60s and 70s.  As far as I know, he’s still living in Mount Vernon, Iowa and should be in his late 70s.  Dake raced in the 1959 and 1960 Daytona 500.  I once had a brand new bright red 1980 Cadillac Sedan Deville.  My license plate for that car read, “Dake 8.”

 

However, I was in Rushville, Indiana and knew the crowd was heavily in support of Tony Stewart.  I saw several Tony Stewart t-shirts to support this feeling.  I added to my answer about who my favorite driver was by saying, “I realize that this answer may not be very popular considering that I’m in Rushville, Indiana, but my favorite NASCAR driver is Jeff Gordon.”

 

This comment got the loudest reaction from the nearly packed grandstand of the night.  Most were against Mr. Gordon, but there was a vocal minority in support of Jeff Gordon.  I just wanted to get the crowd interested in our conversation with that comment.

 

The announcer had lured me up into the press box with the promise of a free U.M.R.A. t-shirt.  When I completed the interview he confessed that he had not received the t-shirts yet, but would give me one later in the night.  I’ve heard that line before.  However, at intermission, true to his promise the announcer made the long walk from the press box to the pits and returned to my seat location with the promised shirt.  You can count on these Midwesterners to do the right thing.

 

The track had a “Two spins and you’re out rule” which is better than no rule at all.  Tonight’s races were run in conjunction with the Rush County Fair.  I have not been to nearly as many fairs as last year and don’t expect to see that many for the balance of the year.

 

I did have some outstanding ham fried rice from one of the fair food vendors.  I had to wait more than five minutes for it to be cooked so it was hot and fresh.  I was the only person in the entire fairgrounds eating their dinner with chopsticks.

 

By the way, you may have noticed that many trackchasers are either world travelers or at the very least United States travelers.  Of course, we trackchasers have an image to uphold as urbane and sophisticated in both our appearance and personal tastes.  With that being said, I hope each and every trackchaser has taken my previous advice and brushed up on their chopstick eating skills.  I hope I don’t have to remind you again.

 

By the way, speaking of food, I will comment on the obesity of the Midwestern people.  I have always seen adults who were way overweight but now I am seeing a significant number of children, many of them very young, who are far overweight.  Of course, I could stand to lose a few pounds myself, but seeing children like this does not bode well for their future.

 

 

 

RACE TRACK STATS:

INDIANPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY (ROAD COURSE), INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - TRACK #1,068 – 7/1/06 & RUSH COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS – TRACK #1,069

 

These tracks my 55^th and 56^th to see in the Hoosier state.  My Indiana total is my fifth highest state total trailing only California, Illinois, Iowa and Pennsylvania.  I currently hold an eighth place ranking that puts me behind Andy Sivi by just two tracks.  Roger Ferrell has a more than comfortable lead over Jack Erdmann 109-77.

 

 

 

RACE TRACK NEWS:

 

INDIANPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY (ROAD COURSE)

 

I wouldn’t walk across the street to re-visit the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.  Heck, I wouldn’t walk across the street to see racing on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval (visited for their 75^th anniversary Indy 500 in 1991).  Why would I say that?  You can’t see a darned thing!!!

 

Today’s lap times for my countable class were at about 90 seconds.  I sat along the front stretch of the 2.6-mile 13-turn road course.  I could probably see a bit less than a mile of the course, mainly the straightaway.  The cars went by in 20 seconds.  That meant I could see just 20 seconds of each racing lap.  That is pitiful.   

 

The IMS road course did not allow much sightseeing.  That is one thing I enjoy about road course racing.  Most of the pit action was behind locked gates.  The weather was very hot and very humid.

 

I have often asked the powers to be if I can simply make a cash contribution to the Old Age Trackchaser Pension and Retirement program in lieu of having to attend tracks like this.  In each case, my appeal has been rejected.

 

Today, I got to watch on the track’s Jumbotron the Formula 1 qualifying.  Actually, I could have watched it live but the folks who built IMS chose to put grandstands and buildings in the direct line of the spectator’s view. 

 

World-renowned Michael Schumacher won the pole position.  I follow Formula 1 racing so little, that I could not identify a photograph of Mr. Schumacher is my life depended on it.  Formula 1 is as popular with the worldwide racing crowd as world soccer is to the worldwide sporting crowd.  I have just never had any interest in it, although I would very much like to attend a Formula 1 event in a foreign country.  I would be there for the “Happening” and not for the race.

 

The countable racing today was the Indy Pro Series that had 23 starters for 25 laps.  A race for Porsches had about 25 cars for 16 laps. Even though there were only a couple of yellow flag delays in the Indy Pro Series race, it was shortened due to going over its time limit.  They checkered the race a couple of laps early.  Again, there was so little of the racing action to see that it was worthless.

 

I did take the opportunity to walk into the oval’s infield.  I was intrigued by all of the people, both young and old, who were getting their country’s flag colors painted on their faces.  Check out the home page at www.ranlayracing.com to see what I’m talking about.

 

I was also surprised to hear all of the foreign languages being used.  I clearly heard more people speaking in a foreign tongue than in English.  The Ferrari supporters were decked out in their red and yellow colors.  They definitely stood out as a group.

 

 

RUSH COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS

 

After seeing one track where a yellow flag came out every two laps (Lake Ozark) and one track where the main class didn’t run for hours (Poplar Bluff) and one track where you didn’t get to see any of the racing (Indianapolis Motor Speedway), tonight’s races at the Rush County Fairgrounds seemed like nirvana.

 

Of course, there is rarely trackchasing nirvana, but there were several things I liked about tonight’s outing.  They had just one class of about 40 open-wheeled midgets.  Yes!  They started on time.  Yes!  You could see all of the racing on the nearly flat 1/6 mile dirt oval.  Yes!  They completed the entire program in just two and one-half hours.  Yes!  When a yellow flag came out for a stalled or flipped car, the track crews cleaned everything up in a jiffy.  After a flip in the “A” main, all 22 of the remaining starters were push started in just 90 seconds.  Yes!

 

Of course, not everything was perfect.  The track was dry and the racing had a large amount of one groove racing.  The sun sat in the spectators faces on a very warm and humid evening.

 

There was one woman driver in tonight’s field.  Her name was Becky Brown.  That’s the same name as my sister who is married to Mr. Bob Brown.  I hope to have a picture of Becky Brown’s, the driver, car on my website soon.

WEATHER CONDITIONS

 

If you like it hot and humid (which I don’t), you would have liked this afternoon.  It was 92 degrees with humidity to match.  One of my two most favorite things at IMS was the overhead roof that protected fans from sunstroke in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway grandstands today.  With the sun setting in your face, the Rush County Fairgrounds wasn’t much better.

RENTAL CAR UPDATE:

 

The National Rental Car Racing Chevy Impala LT is one dusty and filthy rental car.  I had to park it in a guy’s yard for ten bucks since the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has very little formal parking.

 

Thursday total driving miles – 155 miles

Friday total driving miles – 381 miles

Saturday total driving miles – 423 miles

 

 

 

LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE:

 

These worldwide trackchasers are within 100 tracks (plus or minus) of my current trackchaser total.

 

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,069

2.  Rick Schneider – Bay Shore, New York - 1,046 (-23)

3.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 1,031 (-38)

4.  Allan Brown, Comstock Park, Michigan – 1,021 (-48)

5.  Andy Sivi, Clairton, Pennsylvania – 1,012 (-57)*

6.  Gordon Killian, Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania – 1,012 (-57)*

 

* Warning, you are within 50 tracks of being removed from this list.

 

 

 

Other notables

 

These worldwide trackchasers are within 10 tracks (plus or minus) of Carol’s current trackchaser total.

 

37.  Bob Schafer, Oshkosh, Wisconsin - 267 (+8)

38.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California - 259

39.  Spike Rixon, Watford, England - 252 (+7)

 

Steve Kinser’s name has been removed from this list due to non-performance.

 

 

 

2006 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS

 

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California - 78

2.  Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 42

3.  Roland Vanden Eynde, Vilvoorde, Belgium – 41

4.  Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania - 38

5.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California – 29

6.  Paul Weisel, Orefield, Pennsylvania – 28

7.  Roger Ferrell, Majenica, Indiana – 26

7.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania - 26

7.  Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs, Pennsylvania – 26

10. Pam Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania - 20

 

 

Trackchasers everywhere are scurrying to be well-positioned by June 30, 2006.  That’s it, times up!  I’ll be sharing my analysis and predictions about the 2006 season in the last Trackchaser Report of this trip.  Stand by.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

Randy Lewis

#1 Trackchaser Living West of the Mississippi

 

What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so.

 

 

 

 

CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES:

 

AIRPLANE

 

Orange County, CA -  Denver, CO – 780 miles

Denver, CO – St. Louis, MO – 832 miles

RENTAL CAR

 

St. Louis International Airport – trip begins

Eldon, MO – 155 miles

Poplar Bluff, MO – 412 miles

Indianapolis, IN – 790 miles

Rushville, IN – 846 miles

 

TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:

Lake Ozark Speedway – $12.50

Poplar Bluff Speedway - $20

Indianapolis Motor Speedway - $20  ($10 to park)

Rush County Fairgrounds - $8

 

 

 

 

Past trackchasing stories are available at:

www.ranlayracing.com

 

Official trackchaser standings can be viewed at:

www.trackchaser.com  

 

Some of my standings data comes from trackchaser.com

 

 

 

 

 

UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS

 

Following this trip, I must return to San Clemente and help Carol prepare for her most exotic trackchasing trip of the 2006 season.  She’s not going to pass Mike Knappenberger just sitting at the beach.

 

 

 

RACETRACKS VISITED IN 2006 (** not the first time to visit this track)

 

992.  Watermelon Capital Speedway, Cordele, Georgia - January 14

 

993.  Cross Roads Motorplex (asphalt oval), Jasper, Florida - January 15

 

994.  Norfolk Scope Arena, Norfolk, Virginia - January 20

 

995.  Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, California - January 21

 

996.  Oregon State Fair & Expo Center, Forster Livestock Arena, Salem, Oregon - January 28

 

997.  Morosso Motorsports Park, Jupiter, Florida – February 4

 

998.  Thunderbowl Speedway of Ocala, Ocala, Florida - February 4

 

999.  Cross Roads Motorplex (dirt oval), Jasper, Florida - February 5

 

1,000.  Auburndale Kartway, Auburndale, Florida - February 10

 

1,001.  Ocala Speedway (asphalt oval), Ocala, Florida - February 12

 

1,002. Speedworld Speedway, Surprise, Arizona - February 19

 

1,003. Lowe’s Motor Speedway (1/5 mile asphalt oval), Concord, North Carolina - February 25

 

1,004. Concord Raceway, Concord, North Carolina - February 25

 

1,005. Antioch Speedway, Antioch, North Carolina - February 25

 

1,006. Green Valley Speedway, Gadsden, Alabama - February 26

 

1,007. East Bay Raceway (inner oval), Gibsonton, Florida – March 17

 

1,008. Volusia Speedway Park West (1/6M oval), Barberville, Florida – March 18

 

1,009. Speedway Park, Fruitland Park, Florida – March 18

 

1,010. Sand Mountain Speedway (road course), Fort Meade, Florida – March 19

 

1,011. Anderson Motor Speedway, Anderson, South Carolina – March 31

 

1,012. Westminster Speedway, Westminster, South Carolina – March 31

 

1,013. East Lincoln Motor Speedway, Stanley, North Carolina – April 1

 

1,014. Margarettsville Speedway, Margarettsville, North Carolina – April 2

 

1,015. Sunny South Raceway, Grand Bay, Alabama – April 7

 

1,016. Barber Motorsports Park, Leeds, Alabama – April 8

 

1,017. Coldwater Raceway, Coldwater, Alabama – April 8

 

1,018. Talladega Short Track, Talladega, Alabama – April 8

 

1,019. Ballymena Raceway, Ballymena, Northern Ireland - April 14

 

1,020. Oulton Park, Little Budworth, England - April 15

 

1,021. Somerset Rebels Banger Raceway, Rooks Bridge, England - April 16

 

1,022. Mendips Raceway, Shipham, England - April 16

 

1,023. Oval Raceway, Angmering, England - April 17

 

1,024. Arlington Stadium, Eastbourne, England - April 17

 

1,025. Southside Speedway, Midlothian, Virginia - April 28

 

1,026. Motor Mile Speedway, Radford, Virginia - April 29

 

1,027. Wythe Speedway, Wytheville, Virginia - April 29

 

1,028. Summit Point Raceway, Summit Point Circuit, Summit Point, West Virginia - April 30

 

1,029. Old Dominion Speedway – inner inner oval, Manassas, Virginia - April 30

 

1,030. Shenandoah Speedway, Shenandoah, Virginia – May 4

 

1,031. Bridgeport Speedway (inner oval – front), Bridgeport, New Jersey - May 5

 

1,032. Empty Jug, Hawley, Pennsylvania - May 6

 

1,033. Oakland Valley Race Park, Cuddebackville, New York - May 6

 

1,034. Thunder Mountain Speedway, Center Isle, New York - May 6

 

1,035. Motocross 338, Southwick, Massachusetts - May 7

 

1,036. Glen Ridge Motorsports Park, Fultonville, New York - May 7

 

1,037. Calumet County Speedway, Chilton, Wisconsin - May 19

 

1,038. Grant County Speedway, Lancaster, Wisconsin - May 20

 

1,039. Blackhawk Farms Raceway, Rockton, Illinois - May 21

 

1,040. The Milwaukee Mile (Road course), West Allis, Wisconsin - May 21

 

** Angell Park Speedway, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin – May 21 (new track Carol only)

 

1,041. Park Jefferson Speedway, Jefferson, South Dakota - May 25

 

1,042. Superior Speedway, Superior, Wisconsin - May 26

 

1,043. Brainerd International Raceway, Brainerd, Minnesota - May 27

 

1,044. Canby Speedway, Canby, Minnesota - May 27

1,045. Crawford County Fairgrounds (figure 8), Denison, Iowa - May 28

1,046. Tri-State Speedway, Sisseton, South Dakota - May 29

1,047. Sheyenne River Speedway, Lisbon, North Dakota - May 29

1,048. Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch, Pahrump, Nevada – June 3

1,049. The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas, Nevada – June 3

 

1,050. Hibbing Raceway, Hibbing, Minnesota – June 6

 

1,051. Buena Vista Raceway, Alta, Iowa – June 7

 

1,052. Lebanon Midway Speedway, Lebanon, Missouri – June 8

 

1,053. Rocky Top Raceway, Coal Grove, Ohio – June 9

 

1,054. Midvale Speedway (oval), Midvale, Ohio – June 10

 

1,055. Midvale Speedway (figure 8), Midvale, Ohio – June 10

 

1,056. Spring Valley Raceway, Millport, Ohio – June 11

 

1,057. Rialto Airport Speedway, Rialto, California – June 17

1,058. Lawrenceburg Speedway (figure 8), Lawrenceburg, Indiana -  June 20

1,059. Lawrenceburg Speedway (temporary oval), Lawrenceburg, Indiana -  June 20

1,060. Thunder Mountain Speedway, Knox Dale, Pennsylvania -  June 21

1,061. State Park Speedway, Wausau, Wisconsin -  June 22

1,062. Dodge County Fairgrounds Speedway, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin -  June 23

1,063. Lucas Oil Speedway (oval), Wheatland, Missouri -  June 24

1,064. Lucas Oil Speedway (figure 8), Wheatland, Missouri -  June 24

1,065. Tri-City Speedway, Pontoon Beach, Illinois - June 25

 

1,066. Lake Ozark Speedway, Eldon, Missouri - June 29

 

1,067. Poplar Bluff Speedway, Poplar Bluff, Missouri - June 30

 

1,068. Indianapolis Motor Speedway (road course), Indianapolis, Indiana – July 1

 

1,069. Rush County Fairgrounds, Rushville, Indiana – July 1